Political commentary from the LA Times

Ticket Replay: Anybody who hasn't been offered a payoff job by Obama's White House put out your hand

December 23, 2010 | 3:44
am

During the holiday season, as in years past, The Ticket is republishing some of our favorite items from the previous political year. This story was originally published on June 3, 2010:

As a public service, The Ticket today is officially launching a comprehensive list of Democrats who have not recently been offered jobs by the Obama White House to not do something. It can't be too long a list, so just leave your names in the Comments section.

Wednesday's revelations by yet another Democrat running against yet another Obama White House Democrat favorite that he was offered yet more jobs to abandon his inconvenient electoral effort have raised the stakes in this evolving midterm election year.

Already we know that Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak was offered an administration job if he'd self-destruct his primary challenge of Sen. Arlen "Remind Me Again, What Party Am I In Today?" Specter.

Surprisingly, a thorough White House probe of itself found no improprieties in what it called several unpaid-job discussions between Sestak and a secret emissary we'll call Bill Clinton.

Alas, they didn't get their stories straight because Sestak says one conversation occurred with....

...the famous spouse of a federal employee and Obama's minions say several chats were had.

But in the one-party world of Chicago politics that produced the Obama-Emanuel-Jarrett-Axelrod Oval Office cabal, these are meant to be overlooked as the kind of routine, midweek political arrangements that they are back home on Dearborn Street. Seriously, who wouldn't take care of their faux friends in this rough-and-tumble world? It's only taxpayer money.

Now comes Colorado's former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff (see photo right), who like everyone else in the contemporary American political world can read the tea leaves prophesying an autumn Armageddon for incumbents.

So Romanoff spots Obama's melting political clout and defies his party chief to challenge Colorado's incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet in the Aug. 10 Senate primary.

Bennet was handed the Senate job by Gov. Bill Ritter when Ken Salazar was handed the Interior Cabinet job by Obama in anticipation of his exceptional handling of the ongoing Gulf oil spill. You're doing a fine job, Kenny.

Colorado's Bennet like numerous doomed Democrats this year voted to pass Obama's healthcare bill, which only 61% of Colorado voters now want repealed.

The defiant Romanoff -- hey, it worked for Sestak -- says he had three possible jobs dangled before him if he quit the Bennet challenge courtesy of Jim Messina, who already has an Obama job as Emanuel's deputy.

A trio of suggested, possible, maybe, who-knows, it-might-be-arranged jobs for Romanoff may not actually matter much because Romanoff turned them down and right now former Lieut. Gov. Jane Norton, a Republican, is beating either of them in recent Rasmussen Reports polls.

Does anyone else notice an emerging pattern of Obama job-handing here that's creating state-level political chaos for his Democratic party? In December the Really Good Talker campaigned for Martha Coakley's Senate bid in Massachusetts and helped send Republican Scott Brown to the chamber, blowing the Democrats' 60-seat majority..

Now, Democrats could well lose Salazar's once-safe Senate seat on Nov. 2, a key part of the party's once-promising inroads into the Republican Rockies.

In 2009, Obama would have vacated the New Mexico governor's chair by his attempted appointment of Gov. Bill Richardson as Commerce secretary as payback for that timely primary endorsement. But Bill withdrew under an investigative cloud.

However, Obama's 2009 man-caused nomination of Janet Napolitano as head of Homeland Security did hand the Arizona governorship to Republican Jan Brewer.

After initially shunning her outreach, Obama has found time in between vacations for a White House meeting with Brewer this afternoon. It didn't work on Joe Biden, but maybe Obama will offer Brewer some kind of administration job to shut up.